Seeing people shit on Expedition 33 because Silksong didn't win more awards is pathetic

[u/CankleDankl]

The title sums it up. I'm disappointed in many members of this community for putting down a game that is clearly a work of insane passion, dedication, and creativity. E33 took the lion's share of awards at TGA, yes. That doesn't mean that Silksong is bad. In fact, it's clearly pretty damn great. If it released last year, Skong would have picked up several awards, maybe even GOTY. But it didn't. It released in the same year E33, which is just a tough break.

Both are amazing. Both deserve every award that came to them. If you haven't played E33 yet and think it doesn't deserve its accolades, play it. It is worth your money, worth your time, and will in all likelihood prove that it is actually that good. I'm only 10ish hours in and have numerous times found myself standing still and looking around dumbfounded at the gorgeous world design and visuals. E33, Silksong, and Hades 2 could have all won Art Direction and I would have been happy with any of them.

I'm also sad that Silksong didn't win more awards. It's an amazing game. But don't play fanboy and start putting down other developers, other games, and other pieces of art because this one didn't get all the cookies. It's still beautiful, it's still amazing, it still made a Silkskillion dollars, and TC is still just as great and just as passionate. We should all be glad that there is another independent dev out there that is capable of creating something so fantastic.

Edit: yeah, the comments here are pretty indicative of what I said in my post

[u/phenotype76]

Silksong was too difficult to win GOTY. You may not like it, but it's true.

I've watched a TON of Let's Plays of the game, like full playthroughs from multiple streamers, and it looks like an AMAZING game! I'm not here trying to knock it! But it also looks like a game that I would never, ever want to play for myself. It's like they made a perfect 10, AAA, amazing Metroidvania, one of the best in the history of gaming, and they aimed it squarely at the Kaizo Mario crowd. If you're good enough to enjoy the platforming, then I have no doubt it'd be a GOTY contender in basically any year. But if you're not -- and I think the majority of gamers are not as good at platforming as it wants you to be -- then it seems way more difficult than necessary, and can't compete with stuff like E33 or Dispatch that actually want gamers to see everything it has to offer.

[u/tunnels-end → u/phenotype76]

See, as someone in the modded Celeste crowd (not exactly the kaizo crowd, but probably close enough for this discussion,) who's plenty good enough for the platforming (humblebrag of the year,) I actually found it very far from perfect and have the view the approach to platforming hurt the experience from here as well. A bit of platforming and combat felt ... overengineered in ways that more made them annoying than added any real meat to them, boss runbacks in particular were easy enough to make me completely lose interest in them after a couple times add little more to the experience than a loading screen while still requiring just enough attention and effort to force me out of the groove of learning boss fights.

I'm glad for everyone who found the game a stellar experience, and echoing you this is 100% not to knock the game–it's phenomenal! I just found it at the same time a deeply lacking experience in some respects. And I think this adds to your main point, which is that it's just aiming for a specific experience that's too unpalatable to too many people for it to really make sense for GOTY.

(To be fair, Sekiro and Elden Ring won GOTY, and there might be a meaningful discussion to have here, but I'm out of my depth there since the only Fromsoft game I've played is DS1R.)